QotW6: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

My personal blog has been with me for 4 years and going. These years as a young adult had been the hardest years of my life, the most confusing, most changeable, most complicated times of my life, and I guess anybody else’s. because I view a blog as an online diary, I often find myself negotiating more exposure for more self-revelation and more self-revelation for less privacy. Although Jeffrey Rosen states that “it’s impossible to know someone on the basis of snippets of information”, I still have the nagging fear that one day I would be found out, caught and condemned by the “many who is watching the many”. Vulnerability is often the theme of my entries in those years, if anyone diss at my thoughts, I would be so embarrassed, wouldn’t have anywhere to hide, not even on the Net, hence my worry.

“But people say one thing and do another.” (Bob Sullivan) My blog has been with me for 4 years and it hasn’t gotten any less explicit then when I first started out. Perhaps this is quite like a “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude. Since you can’t prevent pirvacy loss, you might as well reveal it all. Or you could tell a lie. Just make sure you remember it after telling. When role models and pioneers have reaped the benefits of disclosure, I and many others involuntarily follow suit. When Xiaxue’s earlier archives of her sad love life (which she had locked it away after she became famous, but I manage to find it) invited mockery from many others which lead her into fame eventually, one can’t help but be amazed by the irony of it. And look at Donald Trump, he certainly values exposure more than anything else. He loves having his stories all over the news page. He calls it ‘publicity’. If not why would he write book after book detailing every hour of his work and private life with his family?

Overtime I have learnt to overcome my surprise when an acquaintance come up to me and ask about my sick cat, which I don’t remember telling anyone about. I have learnt to be consistent with my online personality, by hiding my surprise, replying to her concern and assuming he or she read it from my blog but prefers not to leave comments. In this way, blogging has become my voice and a broadcasting tool for a continuous period of time despite the time when I first wrote the entry. In other words, I have created a set of “recording or monitoring (tools) of real or apparent authority figures (for) others” which is termed as sousveillance (Steve Mann).

This personal sousveillance has brought new meaning to my connectivity to social groups. Perhaps it is true that “we belong only when exposed”(Jeffrey Rosen). Without asking about my sick cat, I would never have told my friend how it passed away and found out he or she works at a local animal hospital and that we share our love for animals. Gradually, intimacy is built. Not an illusory one.

References

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Privacy. (2007). Privacy. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved 03, 07 , 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy